Salt Lake City Police are looking into missing Utah student Mackenzie Lueck’s dating life after she disappeared without a trace on June 17
Police are investigating the dating apps of a University of Utah student who disappeared last week after taking a Lyft ride from the airport – as they release surveillance images of her an hour before she vanished.
Mackenzie Lueck, 23, was last seen on June 17 after she landed at the Salt Lake City International Airport around 2am, after she spent the weekend with her family in El Segundo, California for her grandmother’s funeral.
On Tuesday Salt Lake City police shared images of her at the airport retrieving her luggage showing Lueck with her hair in a bun wearing a white hooded sweater, black pants, and sandals.
She carried a large blue handbag with her, a small black backpack on her back and a wheeled brown suitcase.
During a police update press conference on Tuesday, Assistant Police Chief Tim Doubt said they’re looking into her social media and dating profiles.
Lueck’s friends have come forward to say she was casually dating several people and was interested in older men. Cops didn’t specify if they’ve spoken with anyone she was dating.
On Tuesday Salt Lake City Police shared these images of Lueck after she got off her plane at Salt Lake City International Airport at 2.09am. She was returning to Utah after spending the weekend in LA to attend her grandmother’s funeral
She was last seen with her hair in a bun, wearing a white hooded sweater, black pants, and sandals. She carried a large blue handbag with her, a small black backpack on her back and a wheeled brown suitcase
Police are intensely searching for clues in Hatch Park in North Salt Lake. Hatch Park is where Lueck was dropped off by the Lyft driver. She then got into another vehicle with a mystery companion, according to authorities
‘In regards to her online activity, we are aware of this aspect and continue to look into all facets of her life for leads into her disappearance,’ Doubt said.
From the airport she ordered a Lyft ride to Hatch Park in North Salt Lake at 2.40am. Her driver said he saw her jump into another car just before 3am with an unknown individual – but cops aren’t sure if it was a man or woman.
The Lyft driver has been cleared in her disappearance.
The park where she was left by the Lyft driver is located eight miles from her apartment. Police have said she didn’t seem distressed when she met up with the person.
Cops say they haven’t been able to verify the make of the vehicle or the stranger she met at the park.
‘The description we have is vague. It could’ve been a male or female,’ Doubt said.
‘We have exhausted all avenues of determining this information and are asking that person please call us.’
‘We see no indication that she has gone off the grid before.
‘This behavior is uncharacteristic.’
Her friends say that Lueck, a senior nursing student at the University of Utah who is due to graduate in 2019, would never cut off communication from her friends or miss midterm exams, a wedding, or a flight back to LA this week.
‘In regards to her online activity, we are aware of this aspect and continue to look into all facets of her life for leads into her disappearance,’ Assistant Police Chief Tim Doubt said during a press conference Tuesday
Police say they’ve received over 125 tips related to her case and there’s no indication of foul play in her disappearance.
‘Mackenzie, in the case, if you just want to be left alone please just let us know that you’re safe,’ Doubt said at the press conference.
On Tuesday police revealed that Lueck had encountered Salt Lake City police several times but her disappearance does not appear to be related to these incidents.
She received a speeding ticket in 2015, encountered police in connection with an assault in 2018 and claimed lost property earlier this year. Doubt did not specify if she was a witness or victim in that assault cast but said all of her previous cases are closed.
‘I honestly am just as confused as everyone else,’ Lueck’s sorority sister Kennedy Stoner said to Fox.
‘I don’t know why she would be meeting someone that late, especially at a park, just to — I don’t know where she would go. I don’t know anyone that lives in North Salt Lake. So I’m just as confused. I don’t understand it.’
She says Lueck doesn’t typically travel alone and may have been impacted by the death of her grandmother after returning to Utah from the funeral.
On June 17 from the airport she ordered a Lyft ride to Hatch Park in North Salt Lake at 2.40am. Her driver said he saw her jump into another car just before 3am with an unknown individual – but cops aren’t sure if it was a man or woman
‘I honestly am just as confused as everyone else,’ Lueck’s sorority sister Kennedy Stoner said to Fox . ‘I don’t know why she would be meeting someone that late, especially at a park, just to — I don’t know where she would go. I don’t know anyone that lives in North Salt Lake’
‘She doesn’t travel often, but whenever she travels it’s usually to go back home, to El Segundo. But recently, since it was during such a tragic time over the last weekend with her grandma’s funeral, I’m just worried and concerned about her well-being,’ Stoner said.
‘I know [the funeral] was a very traumatic event for her,’ Stoner added. ‘She was close with her grandma. She’s close with all of her family. And so, I had texted with her over that weekend, just letting her know that I was there for her, and if there was anything that I could do. But after that, I haven’t heard [anything].’
Police say they’re looking to see if Lueck had any secret social media or dating profiles or a second phone.
‘As far as I know, I have never even heard of that before. I don’t know anything about another phone,’ Stoner said.
Lueck is a part-time student in her senior year majoring in kinesiology and pre-nursing. She has been a student at the university since 2014 and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Anyone with information that may be helpful to the investigation can contact Salt Lake City Police at (801) 799-3000.